Binding together of sheet-like articles such as pages of a book may be accomplished in a number of ways. Some are relatively complex and require machinery. Of course, commercial bookbinders (for either new books or books under repair) usually employ such machinery and pages are permanently bound in the book.
On the other hand, there are situations where it is desirable to bind sheet-like articles together but acquisition of bookbinding machinery is out of the question or at least not warranted. For example, persons who take or otherwise obtain candid photographs often find it desirable to bind such photos between covers to form a book-like arrangement.
Such an arrangement protects the photos, helps prevent loss and retains the order of arrangement. The latter may be important in, say, describing a sequence of events such as a vacation trip. Several arrangements are provided including the system disclosed in the parent application, which are useful to bind or hold together post cards, photos, business cards and the like. Additionally, other sheet-like articles to be bound together in aligned, stacked arrangement include writing tablet sheets, business forms and the like can be bound using similar type arrangements.
A variety of such systems and arrangements exist for binding together sheet-like articles, each of which include various features. Generally, such systems include a front and back cover and a spine member, or self-adhering strip portion of the spine member usually includes an adhesive surface protected by a release liner.
Certain disadvantages arise when such binding arrangements are utilized. This is particularly true with respect to self-applied, pressure-adhering devices used by "amateur binders," e.g., persons wishing to bind photos of their grandchildren.
Unlike instances where machinery is employed to secure sheets for and during binding, several of the self-applied binders are very tricky to use. One must stack and carefully align the articles, e.g., documents or photos, and while holding them in precise arrangement between a pair of covers, neatly and squarely apply a self-adhering strip along the aligned edges of the articles to be bound together.
Even though the strip may be "pre-attached" to one of the covers and need only be adhered to the other, this task requires a good deal of manual dexterity and is not easily accomplished. And if one's ability to securely "clamp" a stack of articles together is a bit impaired, this adds another dimension of complexity.
Two common (and related) "flaws" can occur. One is that the strip is "out of square" when applied and does not fully contact and secure one of the covers. The other is that because the strip is not straight along the aligned edges, the strip has a fold or crease along it and does not contact and secure the articles to be bound as well as possible. Even disregarding the fact that "components" of the articles and binder may not be as well secured as possible, the arrangement is aesthetically less pleasing that it might be.
A primary cause of such flaws is the difficulty in aligning the edges of the articles to be bound and supporting the articles in such aligned position while a strip is affixed. It is difficult to manage the necessary manipulation of the spine member or strip with one hand while the other hand continues to grasp or otherwise hold the stack in alignment. Further, as the strip is affixed, individual sheets in the stack may tend to slip down out of alignment. Even with articles like photos, binding problems occur. And as the articles become larger (or at least where the corresponding edge of the article become longer) binding becomes more cumbersome, and flaws more likely. A new arrangement or apparatus which addresses some of these disadvantages would be an important advance in the art.